grab a drink my review is here!!!long

Finally managed to get around to typing this thing up I have been feeling a bit offcolour the last few days(post cruise blues i think)

ok, on with it. we travelled with son 17 daughter 14 and MIL 77 plus us late 40s. I wont try and compare ships as there really is no comparison, one three star, beach, family ship the other 5 star city stops and older couples.

Dining. we had anytime dining and literally walked in any dining room with no wait. Food was amazing and always available 24 hours a day even free room service.buffet had huge areas and we always managed to get a seat quickly, they even had waitresses handing out plates as you go in to the buffet so you didn touch anything someone else may touch.

shows.

I had read it was hard to get seats but we never had difficulty, still seats free when the lights went down. It is set out like a cinema so everyone gets a great view. There was a small retractable table for your drink like on planes. The shows were ok.I liked the hypnotist i literally had an headache from crying so much from laughing. It was so funny.

cabins. we only had insides. Both were small but in centre of ship near lifts. No noise. It was very well set out with heaps of hanging space in a walk inrobe, lots of shelves behind a full length mirror. More drawers in bedroom as well as 2 bedside tables. we also had a fridge which we never used. Bathroom had lots of storage but shower was tiny but water pressure good. Free fruit bowl always available if you were hungry!!!

activities

So much to do. none of us including kids even put our swimmers on. it was warm enough at times [plus they had a huge indoor pool.we just preferred to do things. trivias, bingo, lots of games quizzes and karaoke, get together groups, lectures on computers, photography, dance classes philosopy. The ship was full but never crowed. i think most people were in bed by 11.30 as most people we met were other aussies.

embarkation

fast with lots of people to help you. this was probably helped by the fact we went a bit later to maximise our time in Auckland.

disembarkation.

very fast we were home by 9.45am BUT we had done the immigration on board. What a mess that was. we were all given times when to attend but we still queued for about an hour in a queue that snaked right through the casino, smokey with constant"dinging"and nowhere to sit. Very poor planning.

weather.

mostly fine except for the "sounds"wet cold and windy. The sea was rough from here to melbourne but this is usual. Many people were sick. We never even felt queasy thanks to tablets from the uk(stugeron if you can get them even good for kids with no drowsiness)

will do ports in another post so as not to bore you too much here

karon

Loving it so far... looks like you had a wonderful time.;)

I'm off to bed now.. looking forward to reading the rest tomorrow.:)

we flew into Auckland after leaving sydney on a 7.15 am flight. This gave us the afternoon and day there. we went up the tower and saw the sapphire princess in dock and watched the bungee jumpers for a while. Walked all over, loved the place. Hotel which was booked by TA was Stamford Plaza, excellent hotel and we walked to the ship dragging our cases even MIL. No problems.

Tauranga. we hired a car here and i had planned the route etc from the internet. well that all went out of the window. The hire car people brought the car to the ship for us and told us places to go which we did and missed all the "tourists" we drove to "Blue lake" then onto "Buried village" which is a bit like pompeii, (village buried by volcano.)then through the redwood forest.Then onto hot springs geyser area that is run by a whole village not government. they had a maori show and photo ops too. We then drove around trying to find our way up the mountain but gave up.instead we stopped by the lake and enjoyed the scenery. we drove back to the ship via another forest road with very narrow roads and single lane bridges.

we drove through tauranga over a wonderful bridge my hubby liked(engineer!!) right to the ship and left the car at the dock.

Christchurch

caught cab into town although the ship had buses running. Looked around and visited antartic centre, saw the penguins and rode some vehicle thing(cant remember name but it was almost like a roller coaster ride)

Dunedin

Hired car again (booked both before we left) so much to see here. We drove right around the otago bay(so scenic) right to the albartoss centre, on to lanarch castle. Into town to visit the railway station again a great tourist site. Walked around, went to cadbury factory for shortened tour (due to easter) then off to Baldwin street the steepest street in the world. We all walked up it, no mean feat. We got to leave car in the town of lytton (where ship was ) so we looked in a few shops there before getting back on ship. With anytime dining there was no rush.

Fiordland.

This is an amazing place and while it was rainy and windy here , there was always a ton of people on deck, lovely. also because of all the rain recently the waterfall were running.

From here on in the waves were high so we had to slow right down. The captain kept us all well informed eventually giving us the news we were going to have to miss hobart. I felt for the americans as we would probably be able to go back.

still that gave us more time in melbourne as we docked at 12 midday.

Melbourne

again well organised with trams into the city. we looked around and as it was saturday, hubby checked about footie and the men decided to go to the match.

next day we caught tram back into the city and walked around the south bank then caught ferry up the yarra. We then just walked around and caught the tourist tram (free)for a guided tour. Melbourne sure knows how to cater for tourists

we didnt do any princess tours as for 5 of us it worked out too expensive. there was a ton if information on these boards and many other cruisers who helped.

I realy cant think of any negatives about this cruise except for the immigration queue but that did shorten the time taken to get off the ship. we literally walked off(well almost dragged off)

CRuise staff were all amazing and went out of their way to help, were always pleasant. Even the entertainment crew were so much fun, i felt like i was crusing with friends. Sad i didnt win bingo although a "karen from sydney" did win on the last day, but it wasnt me. I also met another karen so karens must love cruising!!

guess that is about it for now, if you are still here thank you for your interest, i know i love reading other reviews.

i will try and get photos online for you as well.

feel free to ask any questions.

karon (glad to get that off my to do list)

Hi Karon, so glad you also enjoyed the" Sapphire.".....and we had the same thing with our immigration line...right through the smoky casino.!!

at least is was easy getting off in Sydney, that made us happier.

thanks for a great revue of your time.

kind regards, Lorraine:) :)

Thanks for sharing Karon, sounds like you had a ball.

Christchurch.....Looked around and visited antartic centre, saw the penguins and rode some vehicle thing(cant remember name but it was almost like a roller coaster ride)

Isn't the Antarctic Centre amazing?? Did you go into the 'simulator' and experiece the blizzard?? The Hagguland (cross between a 4WD and tank) ride was a highlight for us too.

Dunedin...then off to Baldwin street the steepest street in the world. We all walked up it, no mean feat.

But certainly worth the effort for the views.

I realy cant think of any negatives about this cruise except for the immigration queue but that did shorten the time taken to get off the ship. we literally walked off(well almost dragged off)

Was this because there were more non Australian/NZ passport holders on the cruise, or because the cruise didn't originate in Australia? On all the cruises I've done, apart from completing the arrival card, and of course going through quarantine, I don't recall ever showing my passport to re-enter Australia on return from a cruise.

Kym

Sad i didnt win bingo although a "karen from sydney" did win on the last day, but it wasnt me. I also met another karen so karens must love cruising!!

 

Hi Karon

Thanks for posting such a great review. I LOVE to read other cruisers' thoughts and observations. So there are even more of us (karens and karons) out there in the cruising world!!!!

cheers!!

Karen;)

Australia to Australia don't do it, as for all intents and purposes it appears to immigration like you haven't been overseas....hence the no stamp in your passports.

 

Kaz

And hence the reason, in the past, you didn't even need a passport.

Karen

After reading your review, I now want to do the NZ cruise. If I see any of those bargains, I'd love to do it. For $1800 each twin for 12 nights is not too bad. I'm even trying to convince my mum that an inside wouldn't be that bad.:rolleyes: Currently they are around the $2300 mark.

Next year (Jan-April 08), there will be Princess, Celebrity and Holland America doing that route. We enjoyed our previous Celebrity cruise, but think that Princess may be better suited for that itinerary.

Got to love those bargains.:)

After reading your review, I now want to do the NZ cruise. If I see any of those bargains, I'd love to do it. For $1800 each twin for 12 nights is not too bad. I'm even trying to convince my mum that an inside wouldn't be that bad.:rolleyes: Currently they are around the $2300 mark.

Next year (Jan-April 08), there will be Princess, Celebrity and Holland America doing that route. We enjoyed our previous Celebrity cruise, but think that Princess may be better suited for that itinerary.

Got to love those bargains.:)

We're waiting to find out information about Dawn Princess's cruises out of Melbourne in 2008/9 - we're keen to do one of the NZ ones then.

Cheers KaseyOz, that info on NZ ports and Fiordland was great as our ship Regal Princess, calls in there enroute LA to Sydney, before becoming Pacific Dawn. Glad you enjoyed your trip.

if you need any more in depth info let me know. You will love this route

kaseyoz@hotmail.com

Great review Karon. DH would love to do a NZ cruise. I'm going to check your photos now.

Kerri

Great review Karon, thanks for the tips for things to do at the ports.

Was this onboard Rhapsody?

Would love to see photos if you have any! :)

Thanks Karon for sharing your cruise fun with us. It must be a treat when you have a chance to cruise on another Princess liner.

Cheers,

Anna

The review is a couple of years old, I just linked it in the review section for luckie who was looking for details on what to do in NZ.

I had a job finding it again as I didn't title it well enough.